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What About Bob?
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Directed by Frank Oz.
In this comedy about a doctor-patient relationship pushed way beyond the office, Bill Murray plays Bob Wiley, a neurotic New Yorker struggling with a whirlwind of paralyzing phobias. When an exasperated colleague pawns the handful off on Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), the psychologist has no idea his last appointment will follow him north to New Hampshire on a month's vacation. Bob takes to Dr. Marvin's latest book like no therapy before it, so the well-meaning pest tracks Marvin down at his lakeside summer home to further discuss his problems. But Marvin, preparing for an interview on Good Morning America and a few weeks of R and R, views Bob's stalking as highly inappropriate, and demands he return to New York. But Bob can't take even the strongest hint, and sets up camp with a neighbor to indulge in his own "vacation" -- from his problems. Meanwhile, Marvin's son Sigmund (Charlie Korsmo), daughter Anna (Catherine Erbe), and wife Fay (Julie Hagerty) take to Bob's loopy charm, which Marvin views as an irritating threat. Marvin's temperature rises as Bob insinuates his way into the family, helping Sigmund learn to dive and counseling the previously ignored Anna. As Bob's stock continues to rise, and his to plummet, Marvin becomes increasingly unhinged as the minutes tick down to the interview. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
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Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
Consternation is Richard Dreyfuss' best comic emotion, and he gets to act out quite a bit of it courtesy of Bill Murray in the Frank Oz comedy What About Bob? Dreyfuss' Dr. Leo Marvin is a callous, self-absorbed S.O.B. -- when his wife (Julie Hagerty) asks why he's so hostile towards Bob, it's telling that he responds "Because he's a patient." Even so, his character is in the right, because Bob is intensely annoying as played by Murray, who chews much scenery in channeling his Carl Spackler role from Caddyshack, lazy-lipped slurring and all. The fact that the audience is supposed to relish Marvin's frustrations, and join the chorus of hurrahs for Bob, is a little disorienting, because it puts them in the wrong shoes. Nonetheless, it's possible to sympathize with the shrink's dilemma while still laughing at the ways a clueless patient can unwittingly invade his life. That the doctor achieves unprecedented success with the patient is all the more ironic, because it would massage his massive ego if it weren't such an intolerable disruption to his vacation. Screenwriters Alvin Sargent, Tom Schulman, and Laura Ziskin do take things a bit far out of the realm of belief by the end, which is just one of the factors -- another being not enough belly laughs -- that keep this from becoming one of Murray's undisputed classics. Dreyfuss' performance is the more positively memorable; when he mangles the command "Get out of the car!" into rushed gibberish, boiling over as only Dreyfuss can, it's priceless. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
 



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